Why does God let bad things happen?

by FMZ 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Midget-Sasquatch

  I think the more we learn about the forces and causes behind the formation of life and the universe, the more we see that physically we and our universe are not the direct creation of an all-loving and omnipotent god. Maybe the Gnostics were on the right track in this regard. The material universe is not the design of the loving god. The physical reality is metaphorically the creation of an imperfect "god - the process". Nature does seem to be amoral though rather than the Gnostics view of it being totally evil.

  So far, I have no way of knowing whether there is another non-physical part to us. But if there were, then the Gnostic take, mixed in with FMZ's view is appealing to me. The physical and its errors weren't the plan, but they'll be an insignificant blip to that postulated part of us that returns to its original restful home. .....And they lived happily ever after
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  Sirona

  I agree with FMZ 100% on this topic.

  That is all I have to say!

  Sirona
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  logansrun

  How can people so easily forget the extraordinary proclivity of humans to fool themselves, to trick themselves into believing something that will fondle their egos, their deepest hopes? We start off by saying, "Oh, it would be really nice if there was some way out of the death and suffering we see. I certainly would prefer that" -- and then up the ante by saying, "No, I must have some way out of death and suffering or else life just isn't bearable!" -- and then the illogical train of thought reaches it's zenith, "Therefore there must be some way out of this mess! If I can think of a "solution" to the problem of death and suffering there simply must be a "solution"!!"

  Only the first thought in this three-part line of reasoning is rational. Sure, it would be nice if the brute facts of life somehow were not "the whole story" and that in the end "all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." Unfortunately, there is simply no reason to believe this. None.

  But, people don't like what appear to be the facts.

  B.
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  zen nudist

  if we can call the stuff which has always been [assuming something cannot arise from nothing], GOD, then we can see that 1. GOD did not create GOD, GOD did not create the nature or will of GOD....

  that reality or GOD is conscious, can there be any doubt? each person is a self answering testimony to the fact that at least some part of reailty is conscious....

  while there seems no escape to the conclusion that one past has lead to this very present and the prospect of more than one future is likely nill.... each of us seems to have some part on how the unfolding reality actually occurs. our desires and hopes and plans do not violate the single unfolding but are part of it.... while some call this freewill, I see that is as a poor labelling of what is going on. it is clear that our ability to feel pain and pleasure causes us to care about which way things happen and that caring in turn alters how we gamble with each move presented to us...but that does not mean anything truly free is going on in the sense of more than one actual outcome manifesting from our collective actions... we are as free as it matters to us, but certainly, as in the case of GOD above, we did not make our nature nor our structure which carries out our desires dreams and plans. We do not so much chose things out of our enviorment based on our willed desires, but on our discovered desires. no one choses to like chocolate over vanilla, they discover it.... no one choses how strongly cocaine attracts them, they discover it.... when given a set of options, we gamble upon which ever option most strongly excites our system which is a discovery, or we let a randomizer work, such as flipping a coin.... which removes our will from the equation altogether.

  in a simple question: if your actions have causes, where is the freedom? when uncaused and random, where is the will?

  without the myth of freewill there is no good nor evil which arises by comparison of what people do to some arbitrary ideal fantasy of what someone assumes they could have done otherwise... same is true for any god[s].

  if an all knowing god exists, then his damnation of some acts by comparison to what he knows is a lie [a false alternative to what he actually knows], then this god is insane.